"Carey Rockwell - Tom Corbett Space Cadet 06 - Treachery in Outer Space" - читать интересную книгу автора (Rockwell Carey)

operation. They were working toward the day when they would discard the vivid blue
uniforms of the Space Cadet Corps and don the magnificent black and gold of the Solar
Guard.
Tom was aware of the eager expressions on the faces of the Earthworms and he
smiled to himself. It was not a smile of smugness or conceit, but rather of honest
satisfaction. More than once he had shaken his head in wonder at being a Space Cadet.
The odds against it were enormous. Each year thousands of boys from all the major planets
and the occupied satellites competed for entrance to the famed Academy and pitifully few
were accepted. And he was happy at having two unit mates like Roger Manning and Astro
to depend on when he was out in space, commanding one of the finest ships ever built, the
powerful rocket cruiser Polaris.
As Roger and Astro continued to talk to the fledglings, Tom sipped his tea and thought
of his own first days at the Academy. He remembered his fear and insecurity, and how hard
he had fought to make what was then Unit 42-D a success, the unit that eventually became
the Polaris unit. And how each assignment had brought him closer to his dream of
becoming an officer in the Solar Guard.
He got up and walked to the window and looked out across the Academy campus, over
the green lawns and white buildings connected by the rolling slidewalks, to the gleaming
crystal Tower, the symbol of man's conquest of space. And beyond the Tower building, Tom
saw a spaceship blasting off from the spaceport, her rockets bucking hard against thin air
as she clawed her way spaceward. When it disappeared from sight, he followed it with his
mind's eye and it became the Polaris, his ship! He and Roger and Astro were blasting
through the cold black void, their own personal domain!
A loud burst of laughter behind him suddenly brought Tom back to Earth. He smiled to
himself and shook his head, as though reluctant to leave his dream world. He glanced out of
the window again, this time down at the quadrangle, and far below he recognized the squat,
muscular figure of Warrant Officer Mike McKenny drilling another group of newly arrived
cadet candidates. Tom saw the slidewalks begin to fill with boys and men in varicolored
uniforms, all released from duty as the day drew to a close. Tonight, Astro, Roger, and he
would go to see the latest stereo, and tomorrow they would blast off in the Polaris for the
weekly checkout of her equipment. He turned back to Spears, Coglin, and Duke. Roger was
just finishing the story of their latest adventure (described in The Revolt on Venus).
"The best part, of course, was the actual hunting of the tyrannosaurus," said Astro.
"A tyrannosaurus?" exploded Spears, the youngest and most impressionable of the
three Earthworms. "You actually hunted for a dinosaur?"
Astro grinned. "That's right. They're extinct here on Earth, but on Venus we catch 'em
and make pets out of the baby ones."
"We could have saved ourselves a lot of trouble, though," commented Roger mockingly.
"We have several officers here that would have served just as well. Major 'Blast-off' Connel,
for instance, the toughest, meanest old son of a hot rocket you have ever seen!"
"Stand to!"
The six boys nearly broke their backs jumping to attention. A squat, muscular figure,
wearing the black-and-gold uniform of a Solar Guard, strode heavily into their line of vision.
Roger gulped as Major Connel stopped in front of him. "Still gassing, eh, Manning?" he
roared.
" 'Evening, Major, sir," mumbled Roger, his face beet red. "We-er-ah-were just telling
this Earthworm unit about the Academy, sir. Some of its pitfalls."
"Some of the cadets are going to fall into a pit if they don't learn to keep their mouths
shut!" snapped Connel. He glared at Tom, Astro, and Roger, then wheeled sharply to face
the three quaking freshmen cadets. "You listen to anything they tell you and you'll wind up